Inmates of correctional facilities, such as jails, prisons, stockades, penitentiaries, etc., are often permitted some communication with other parties. For instance, inmates are typically permitted to make telephone calls to parties outside the correctional facility. Of course, such telephone calls are generally restricted. For example, a correctional facility's telephone system will generally not permit an inmate to place calls to certain parties on a restricted list, such as an inmate's crime victim, a judge, parties with insufficient credit rating, etc. Further, the telephone calls are typically recorded and/or monitored.
Calls from parties outside a correctional facility to inmates of the facility have traditionally not been permitted. However, messaging systems that allow a party outside the correctional facility to record a message that may be retrieved by an inmate of the correctional facility have been developed, see e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,668,045 and 6,665,380, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Thus, for instance, a party outside the correctional facility may record a message for a particular inmate, and the particular inmate may later retrieve the recorded message.
However, traditional techniques of notifying inmates of pending messages (i.e., messages that have been recorded and are awaiting the inmate's retrieval thereof) have been inefficient or otherwise problematic. For instance, in one technique inmates are not notified of pending messages, but are instead required to periodically call the messaging system to determine whether any messages are awaiting the inmate's retrieval.
According to another technique, a system administrator is informed by the messaging system of pending messages for inmates, and the system administrator then informs the respective inmates. Of course, this technique undesirably consumes time of the system administrator, and inmates awaiting messages are reliant upon the system administrator taking the time to inform them. Further, the inmates may become impatient and periodically interrupt the system administrator to inquire as to whether they have a message, which further detracts the system administrator's attention away from other duties.
The issue of messaging is particularly problematic with detainees. Detainees, in general, are relatively new inmates that have not yet been processed to become long-term residents of a correctional facility. For instance, typically detainees do not have personal identification numbers and/or other information assigned to them within the correctional facility's system, as long-term inmates typically have. When initially arrested, a detainee may be held (e.g., in a holding area or holding cell) and may be permitted to make calls to, for example, an attorney, family member, bail bondsman, etc. Often, the detainee will desire to receive messages from parties outside the correctional facility to, for instance, learn the status of obtaining bond (or “bail”) for release from the correctional facility, etc. Many detainees are released from the correctional facility (typically after they post bail) within 24 hours of being arrested.
The detainees are often in high-stress situations and are therefore upset and frustrated at being unable to easily communicate with persons outside the correctional facility. This is especially true for locations that do not have a bail bondsman, in which the detainees are fully reliant on friends or family members to obtain the necessary funds for bail. A detainee may, for example, call a family member to notify the family member of the detainee's arrest and to request the family member's help in obtaining funds for posting a bond so that the detainee may be released from the correctional facility. Because the family member is not permitted to place a return call directly to the detainee, the detainee will typically have to await the family member to leave the detainee a message (e.g., regarding the status of obtaining the funds, etc.), which the detainee can retrieve from the messaging system.
Further, inmates or detainees may have difficulty getting in touch with a party outside the correctional facility, such as a family member, to, for instance, request help with obtaining funds for bail, etc. And, once an inmate or detainee receives a message from such a party outside the correctional facility, it may be difficult for the inmate or detainee to get back in touch with the outside party once again, if so desired. For instance, the inmate or detainee may not know the best contact information (e.g., telephone number) to use for reaching the outside party, the outside party may be away from his/her telephone (and thus unable to accept charges for a call from the inmate or detainee, etc. Thus, the difficulty in exchanging information with parties outside the correctional facility may cause unnecessary delays and/or added stress (and thus potentially result in behavioral problems) with inmates/detainees.
In view of the above, a desire exists for improved systems and methods for information dissemination, such as notifying inmates or detainees of pending messages and/or enabling inmates or detainees to leave messages for outside parties and notifying the outside parties of such pending messages.